The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most common and popular overdrive pedals out there. The pedal itself has gone through many iterations, perhaps not as many as the Big Muff Pi, but it has a long history. Analogman has a decent write up on the history of the tube screamer on his page, and there is another decent write-up at Premier Guitar. As with many pedals, earlier variants or boutique modifications are especially prized by players, and these often command a premium price. The Ibanez TSV808 Vemuram is one such pedal, and it is sadly now out of production. If you refer to the original Sweetwater page, it states:
"The TSV808 employs a refined version of the original Tube Screamer circuit: Instead of four stages like the Tube Screamer (buffer -> overdrive -> tone -> buffer), the TSV808 contains three stages (overdrive -> tone -> +7dB gain boost). The end result is an ultra-smooth drive that retains the Tube Screamer’s trademark mid bump; however, it opens it up with the full-range clarity of the Jan Ray."
The controls on the TSV808 Vemuram are also a bit different as well. The normal Drive, Tone, and Level knobs are there, but there are also trimmers for bass and saturation. The pedal also included internal dip switches that allowed you to toggle between smooth and asymmetric clipping. So in short, this was an amazing pedal. It wasn't cheap new, if I'm reading my Goggle wayback machine correctly, it original cost $449, and I'm not sure exactly when it went out of production. Currently prices on the open market are exceeding $2000, with $2400-$2500 price points showing up for nice examples.
Given the boutique price of original examples, this is yet another pedal that screams (pun intended) for a good clone. Fortunately Ryan the Tone Geek has come through in a major way. He painstakingly traced an original - which hides the traces in a four-layer board - to figure out the overall design and identify each component. The Above Top Secret board not only replicates the original TSV808 Vemuram circuit (including being a four-layer board itself), but adds a couple of functionality modifications that make the pedal more user friendly than the original!
As is typical for most Tone Geek builds, he includes a BOM of recommended components to as closely as possible replicate the original. I went with his BOM which includes a variety of high end resistors (including a couple of 1/2W resistors), mica capacitors, axial film capacitors, and solid polymer capacitors rather than traditional electrolytic capacitors. The only modification from the original circuit I went with is the recommended change of the reverse polarity protection diode - using a 1N5817 rather than a 1N4148. This gives the pedal a bit more headroom. The only issue I encountered is there is a misprint on the silkscreen on the first run of PCBs (though the BOM and instructions are correct) - the silkscreen calls out a JRC4558D op amp when it should be an OPA2134PA.
There is no daughter board for the 3PDT switch, so it has to be hand wired. For the poles of the switch which had to be connected, I just went ahead and used jumper wire and saved pickup wire for the longer runs. While there are holes set up on the board for input and output grounds, the recommended wiring diagram utilizes a star ground on the input like most AionFX boards.
As with most Tone Geek projects, this one includes a face plate as well, and from that faceplate you can see genius of this particular design. Rather than the Bass and Saturation controls being small trimmers requiring a screwdriver on the back of the unit, they're pots which can be adjusted as easily as the rest of the controls. The same goes for the clipping dip switches, they're now on the front of the unit as well.
I've already put this thing through its paces with my new Jazzmaster, and honestly I love it. Tube Screamers seem to stack well with my Noventa anyway (actually better than my beloved Thagomizer, which seems to prefer Strats), but this pedal has a lot of options that separate it from my standard screamer - which just happens to be a Tone Geek TS10 Valve Screamer.
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